Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP) is to take a 29% stake in AqualnSilico, a software firm developing tools to optimise wastewater treatment across multiple industries.
The IP investor said AquaInSilico, a spin out from NOVA University in Portugal, has developed sophisticated algorithms to help detect possible problems with treatment processes before they can be diagnosed by humans.
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“This will allow such as oil groups, brewers, pulp, paper, steel makers, food processing and waste recovery businesses and municipal wastewater treatment plants, to tune and adapt their treatment systems more effectively, and is expected to save them up to 25 per cent of their operating costs”, Frontier said.
One early application of the technology will be to make the removal of phosphorus from wastewater plants more environmentally friendly and effective.
"AquaInSilico is a further sign of the strong progress we are making in Portugal - it is our fourth spin out in the country, and the third from our relationship with [the NOVA School of Science and Technology]”, Frontier IP chief executive Neil Crabb said in a statement.
“The company's ground-breaking software tools could transform wastewater treatment across a wide range of industries and lead to other new technologies being developed", he added.
The shares were steady at 55.5p in early trading on Thursday.
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